Bespoke tailor · London · Founded 1806
Henry Poole & Co
Henry Poole & Co is Savile Row's oldest tailor and made the Prince of Wales's 1865 evening jacket that led to the dinner jacket and tuxedo.
Henry Poole & Co is the longest-established tailoring house on Savile Row and holds ledgers going back to the nineteenth century. It made the short evening coat for the Prince of Wales in 1865 from which the dinner jacket and the American tuxedo descend, and it cuts a balanced coat between the drape and clean-cut extremes.
The ledgers
Poole's records are the most complete documentary history of Savile Row that exists: order books recording what was made, for whom, in what cloth, over more than a century and a half. They are the reason a great deal of what is known about nineteenth-century tailoring is known at all.
The firm dates itself to 1806 and moved into the Savile Row premises in the 1840s, which makes it the founding presence on the street.
The dinner jacket
In 1865 Poole made a short smoking coat in blue silk for the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, to wear at Sandringham instead of a tailcoat. The story of how that garment reached America, via a guest who had one made and wore it at the Tuxedo Park club in New York, is the reason Americans call it a tuxedo.
The claim is unusually well documented for a menswear origin story, because Poole's ledgers record the order. Most such stories are not.
The house style
Poole sits between the two Row extremes: more structure than Anderson & Sheppard, less severity than Huntsman. A moderately built shoulder, a full canvassed chest, a natural waist. The house's history in court and livery tailoring is still visible in its formal work, which is a genuine specialism rather than a sideline.
The record
What it costs
Prices across the site →These are not quotations. Prices below are the most recent figures we could attribute to a source, shown in the currency they were published in.
| What | Service | Price | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-piece bespoke suitAn indicative band, not a quotation. Bespoke entry prices normally exclude tax and cloth beyond the house bunch, and houses raise them without announcement. | Bespoke | £6,000–9,000 | September 2026 |
Where they travel
Find a maker who visits you →Trunk shows let a house take orders and hold fittings away from its own workshop. Dates move; treat this as the pattern, not a calendar, and confirm with the house.
Houses often considered alongside it
Grouped because they compete for the same commission or work in a comparable idiom: not a ranking, and not an equivalence.
01
Anderson & Sheppard
Anderson & Sheppard, the softest Savile Row tailor, cuts jackets with extra cloth across the chest so they hang softly and move with you.
02
Gieves & Hawkes
Gieves & Hawkes, at 1 Savile Row, is a tailor born from two old military firms, known for uniforms, royal warrants and firmly built English jackets.
03
Huntsman
Huntsman, Savile Row's sharpest tailor, makes lean jackets with strong shoulders, a high nipped waist and usually one button, rooted in riding clothes.
Sources
- House history and archive , Henry Poole & Co.
Where a figure is disputed or a house has not published it, the page says so rather than choosing a number.
Picture credits 4
- An illustration of the house's recorded cut: soft shoulder, full canvas chest, balanced english; moderate shoulder, natural waist. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, full canvas chest, drape: soft, full chest, long skirt. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- An illustration of the house's recorded cut: roped shoulder, full canvas chest, structured english. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- An illustration of the house's recorded cut: roped shoulder, full canvas chest, lean, high-waisted, single button. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art